Sunday June 15th
Nottingham’s past reputation to those who have never been, generally extends to Robin Hood, maybe Trent Bridge, Nottingham Castle and a distant memory of Olympic skaters, Torvill and Dean. Sadly, that is about it. Football enthusiasts would be aware of Nottingham Forest and a few older ones, Notts County, the oldest football league club in the world - but with few successes in recent years.
As England’s sixth largest city, or thereabouts, it largely sits under the radar when it comes to tourism, as visitors to the UK are so besotted with London, the Lake District, Cornwall, Stratford upon Avon and maybe York, that Nottingham is usually by-passed altogether, which is a great shame.
Many in the UK are aware that it is one of the best city centres for shopping and being pedestrian friendly, but few tourists are aware.
Historically though, three international companies really did put Nottingham on the map and there would be very few people who have not heard of John Player cigarettes (they were one of the first major F1 team sponsors, with the Lotus F1 team, their cars painted with Gold Leaf and then JPS brands). The second was Boots the chemists, now with branches all over the world. The third, Raleigh bicycles.
Sadly, two of the three are no longer either major employers or even city based, but the history is well known and much of the city’s wealth came from the sheer diversity of industry. The West Midlands (Birmingham, Coventry etc.) was, and still is a to a degree, dependent on the motor industry, but Nottingham’s diversity probably explains why it had a lower profile and weathered various economic hiccups better than most.
The city’s secondary industries included the famous lace manufacturing, still using the original Lever’s machines (Nottingham is still known as ‘Lace City’) and the huge textile, knitting and clothing trades, but these were decimated when large companies such as Marks and Spencer opted to get their clothing manufactured overseas, wiping out many companies in the early 1980s. Although some companies were fairly large, they weren’t in the same league as Raleigh or Players. Other secondary industries, again, vast numbers but smaller companies, included a large mining industry (now gone, with just one pit remaining), printing, electrical/electronics and even transport and the railways.
Over time, what most are totally unaware of is the part that Nottingham played in other areas and in that respect, a visit to the Industrial Museum, situated within the city boundary at Wollaton Park, would be an eye opener. So it was that we headed there on an overcast day and handed over our £2 entry fee. The museum is by no means large and is situated almost alongside the wonderful Wollaton Hall that sits proudly overlooking a vast park within the City boundary, where deer still roam free. Film fans of the Batman genre would recognise the hall as it was used as “Wayne Towers/Mansion” (or whatever) in the recent Batman film.
Even though I knew a fair bit of Nottingham’s industrial history, it was still a fascinating and informative visit. Brough Superior cars and motorcycles I knew of, but I didn’t know that Del Boy’s Reliant 3 wheeler or even Princess Anne’s Reliant GTs had a strong Nottingham connection. Reliant came into being when Raleigh aborted their foray into 3 wheeled cars to concentrate on bicycles and the components (already stamped with the letter ‘R’…) were purchased by a Raleigh employee (the designer) who moved to Tamworth and set up there.
The museum also has what is believed to be the only prototype of the Celer motorcar and the car has recently managed the London to Brighton Veteran car run.
Also new to me was that the first ever commercial video recorder was designed and built in Nottingham way back in 1964/65, with a capacity to record about 20 minutes of black and white TV. It was not a commercial success.
A thoroughly enjoyable visit. Later in the day and after another excellent home cooked chicken dinner, we caught up with two new Cruise Critic members – Tony and Sheila, who will be on the Emerald Princess for the Baltic’s cruise.
Tomorrow we go wandering again…
June 16th – Day 23
Whilst Dave and Sue headed off for their Monday line dancing class, we threw a few bits into our overnight cases and headed south east. First call was at Melton Mowbray (yes, the Pork Pie centre of the universe) but not to sample the local wares, but to rescue the remnants of my Scalextric slot racing set which had been in the guardianship of the Nottingham Sport Car Club’s Mike Mayfield, since I left England’s shores in 1983!
Mission accomplished we continued down the A1 via a traditional greasy spoon café breakfast towards Cambridge. This was our intended stop and we thought we’d give the Hop-On Hop-Off bus a crack. But, we set the sat nav for the City Centre and as it was drizzling, we just didn’t see or find anywhere convenient to stop, so we continued on to Ely – a place we’d been to before.
Still a bit cool, we parked the car and wandered around but although I’d charged up the camera battery the night before, it was totally flat! At the information centre we enquired about the location of the nearest ‘Premier Inn’, but that was in Thetford – the location of much of the wonderful ‘Dad’s Army’ filming. So we headed there and there was space so we booked in.
Not exactly cheap, but the rooms are nice and after Paula had managed a home hair colour top up, we ate on site. Also not cheap, but a nice meal anyway. Paula had the macaroni cheese whilst I opted for a chicken curry – and we shared a dessert.
The room was quite warm and there was no air conditioning but there was a portable fan supplied.
June 17th – Catch up with friends.
The main reason for heading south east was to catch up with two lots of friends who conveniently, aren’t too far from each other, so after the ‘all you can eat breakfast’ we toddled off to see the Deputy Mayor (again!) of Downham Market and his Lady and then on to Mepal, to Paula’s school friend Fiona and hubby Geoff.
We thought we’d head for the Premier Inn at Huntingdon (no reservation) and on arrival, it was full! They checked ahead for us and all 4 at Peterborough were also full and so it was that we headed for Grantham.
Unlike the other Premier Inns, this one, in addition to the standard menu, had an Italian buffet night. Once again, I probably ate too much…
Incidentally, the Premier Inns is now a massive chain with over 600 establishments and we are more than happy to stay there though prices can vary. What also seems to vary is the attached food outlet – with their own loyalty cards. Two of the three were one chain (‘Table Talk’) and the third was ‘Brewer’s Fayre’. Although breakfast seemed to be standard, the basic menus are slightly different – and the former is being rebranded ‘Beefeater’ June 21st. Not the cheapest places around by a long way, but convenient – though the advertised ‘Costas’ coffee was from a push button machine or filtered, not an espresso.
June 18th – Day 25
I definitely ate too much (again) last night so not the best of nights. Premier Inns guarantee ‘a good night’s sleep, or your money back’. I didn’t think the guarantee covered over eating but I thought I’d ask anyway.
We skipped breakfast and trundled around Mrs Thatcher’s home town, but with double yellow lines absolutely everywhere, we didn’t see a suitable parking spot so we headed back to base, via another Costa’s coffee at Mapperley.
Back down then to Morrison’s supermarket and the nearby Tescos for a few odds and ends – including a 10 pack of Carling cider for £7. At 70p each ($1.40NZ) that seems to be worthwhile and the cans are more my size than the larger Bulmer’s cans. I packed it into the Scalextric box. Will it get through the Princess system? Wait and see. The intention is to keep it for the Dawn Princess cruise back, so if it isn’t confiscated, it won’t be opened on the Emerald Princess anyway, where we expect the weather to be relatively cool.
June 19th – Day 26th
Thursday. Dave’s skating day – but when we got to the rink, the café was occupied by the sponsors having a meeting, so we missed out. On to Castle Meadow area (Costa’s, of course) then a walk into town along the canal.
Another of Nottingham’s surprises, easily missed. We didn’t need to go right into the City centre as our destination was the City Archives, trying to establish the exact date of passing of Grandma Green. All we know is that it was September 1952, but have been unable to pin down the exact date. We still don’t know.
Further along the canal to have a look at the recently revamped Midland railway station. Most impressive. The Nottingham tramway currently has one north/south line only, that also terminates above the station. They are busy extending it further south and also west so it is good to see this extensive modernisation of the transport system, but a rail ticket to London for a single, is still more than hiring a car for the day. For two people or a return ticket, no contest. OK maybe if you booked in advance or got a deal, but for two or more people, a hire car is still cheaper.
For our evening meal, once again we took Dave and Sue out to the ‘Toby Jug’ where a good carvery meal is just £5.99. Excellent value and makes the food at the Premier Inn establishments decidedly pricey.
England’s soccer loss looks as though it will be their speediest exit since 1958.
Day 27 – “I got your number NB!”
A local day with the first call, a new watch battery for Paula – and we just happened to speak to the watch rep who was stock-taking, so we ordered Paula’s birthday present. Across the road to Costa’s (of course) then down to Arnold to the motor accessory shop to get a number plate made up for NZ. So, if you know who owns ETD366 and who keep covering their rear plate with bicycles, problem solved - so that is his 60th birthday gift sorted and we won’t even be on the hired party bus to celebrate tomorrow.
Apart from a new suitcase (for the goodies or old Scalextric bits?) and a bit of general shopping, the excellent cream cakes were an indulgence – again.
With England now knocked out of the football World Cup, we will no doubt see heaps of discounted merchandise around…
Day 28 – Dratted sheep…
This was originally one of the few planned in advance days. We were heading for Doncaster for the Chris Barber Jazz concert and a night in yet another Premier Inn.
The day didn’t start too well with an email from home citing the saga of number’ two grandson and his tangle with the law regarding a hooning offence!
Anyway, after the coffee and toastie, Stewart wasn’t back home from a visit to the vet with a cat (or maybe both cats?) so we headed north to Doncaster anyway. We found the Premier Inn easily enough, but we couldn’t find a car park or vehicle entrance. It was market day in Doncaster and as the Inn was alongside the market car park, which was full we couldn’t work out how to get to the front door.
About 45 minutes later after driving around we parked in a loading bay and I approached reception. Had I read the booking confirmation properly, I would have known there was no car park… Anyway, I booked in and managed to dump the bags before heading off to the shopping centre car park. A quarter mile walk back to the Inn via the market, dumped the stuff in room 606 and we then went out again.
Once again, the aroma of fish and chips was irresistible so I succumbed… Cod this time.
We were pleasantly surprised with Doncaster centre and thoroughly enjoyed our walk around.
We opted to walk over to the ‘Cast’ where the Chris Barber concert was on, but the hall wasn’t very well signposted at all.
Fortunately we were early. To the desk to pick up our tickets, only to be told that the concert had been cancelled. The story we were given was that Chris Barber had been knocked over by a sheep…
Back to the Inn for a dessert and coffee and to watch three 2004 episodes of ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ which I can’t remember having seen before. Not quite the entertainment we had planned.
A week today and we are cruising and the real blog begins.
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